Nature and I, We're Like This (Crosses Fingers)

Today is such an awesome day! Technically it's my Friday since I took tomorrow off to pack and load (yuck), so I got all of my projects out of the way. Then my executive director came to my office for an "annual review" type deal and...I GOT A RAISE! I am so ecstatic, especially since it is retroactive from the beginning of our fiscal year, which is April 1. Yay!

Anyway, that was great news. I came home and got the kitchen packed up for the most part and went for my run. I'm on Week 3, Round 2, Day 2 of the couch 25k. It was around 8 pm so there was still daylight but yet it was nice and cool outside. The run was definitely more exerting than my past foray on the treadmill- there is DEFINITELY a difference. Anyway, moral of the story is that I was running along the path near my complex (which is on a road) when I spotted two bunnies, which was super cute. On the last leg I saw a deer up ahead about five feet from the path, munching on some grass and flowers. I turned down my iTouch to see if she (it looked like a young doe) was going to get spooked and run away, but she just stared at me contentedly, eating without a care in the world as I ran by her. It was really neat! It reminded me of the time when I was camping with my mom, stepdad and little brother in California. Cole was 5 at the time and a pain in the you know what. The deer at the campground weren't very skittish, so I held out a handful of grapes to a few of them that were about 10 feet away. They got so close and were ALMOST going to eat the grapes out of my hand when Cole decided to scare the deer by running up to them like a banshee. Awesome. It was probably for the best since I don't think it's legal to feed deer. Anyway, tangent over.

Unrelated to this post, but as I'm typing my neighbors downstairs are screaming at each other. Doesn't really sound too healthy, and it happens a lot. How can people be so angry at each other all of the time? Yikes.

When I got home today I had a package from the knot! As I mentioned previously, I participated in a "Change It Challenge" on the change it challenge board where we posted daily for two weeks the things we were doing to meet our goals. I mainly posted about C25k, yoga and the 100 pushups challenge, because that's all I've really been doing. I won (yay!), and today I got the prize- a $10 iTunes giftcard, a fitness DVD- Nikki Beach Bride The Destination Wedding Workout, and a book- 6 Week Bikini Countdown by Karon Karter. I can't wait to delve into them, and I'll definitely be posting reviews on here.

Here is to an awesome day, even with the packing!

Save the Dates are in!

Our Save the Dates came in the mail yesterday! They came out really nice- I highly recommend magnetstreet.com for anyone that is looking for a user friendly, affordable save the date website! They are a little smaller than I anticipated, but I think that it works out well since any bigger would amount to our faces being in everyones' grill whenever they passed their refrigerator. I brought one in to work to give to my co-worker and she thinks it is the perfect size- any bigger and people wouldn't put them on the fridge, apparently.

Now I just have to harass the members of my family into giving me their addresses, or even a working guest list. I know who I want to invite, but everyone else (parents, bri, in-laws) are taking their sweet time. I am aiming to send them out by September, so there is still some time left.

It seems to me that the guest list/address gathering will be the most stressful part of wedding planning, aside from the seating chart, which will be a blast I'm sure. I can't believe there is only eight months and some change to go!

Treadmill v Outdoors

So today the plan was to do week 3, round 2 of the couch to 5k. Despite my new appreciation of running in the rain, nature had other plans, as there were severe thunderstorms going on when I got home from work. I almost resigned myself to doing a Jillian video but I really wanted to run! I made a gametime decision and decided to go to the gym at my complex to run on the treadmill. And yes, I drove there. I felt foolish driving but I'm not trying to get struck by lightening! Anyway, I set the incline to 1.0, being that I read somewhere that it simulates that outdoors. Yeah right! My legs were definitely not feeling the treadmill, and the workout just wasn't as challenging. I did work up a sweat, but after finishing the couch to 5k portion I jogged for another 10 minutes at 5.8. I checked my heartrate and it was barely 150!

Needless to say, I've come to the conclusion that running outdoors is far superior to the treadmill. Outdoors you have to deal with the weather, heat, humidity, coldness, dips, hills and the like. Since most races are completed outdoors, it makes the most sense to train outdoors. I get the feeling that if I ran on a treadmill leading up to a 5k, I would not be ready to complete the run outdoors. Plus, the changing scenery helps to keep it interesting.

It was still a good workout and I got in week 3 round 2 of the 100 pushups workout. This week is super hard! I may have to repeat it another time! Oh and very exciting---- I won a challenge on TK! Hizzle was hosting a change it challenge on the change it challenge board. Basically we had to post what we were doing to reach our goals for 2 weeks straight. Granted, there weren't many of us participating, but it is still cool to win!

Back to normalcy... for a few days!

Whew... this past week and a half has been a whirlwind! The conference went so well- I love my job and all of our members! The last night culminated in our big centennial gala, which was amazing. We hired a live 10 piece band that is well known throughout the capital district- let me just say that I am severely regretting not looking into hiring them! I originally wanted a DJ because I like Top40 and modern music... but these guys were playing all of that, live! Ah well, my DJ is awesome and we are saving a lot of money going that route.

I was out with my co-workers until 3 in the morning that night. Let's just say those are not my normal hours. I got to work at 10 on Wednesday and my plan to drive to VB from work at 1 straight on quickly morphed into work until 1, come home and nap and then stop at FMIL's (halfway point) and continue the drive to visit Bri on Thursday. The nap was essential! The bonus was that I got to see FMIL's new shih tzu, Josie. She is an adorable furball of love!

The weekend was great. Saturday was the perfect beach day. I usually like to sleep until around 9 on the weekends so on Saturday when Brian told me it was 940, I hightailed it out of bed. My phone revealed that it was 730 am (I don't even get up that early for work lol) so I pouted for a minute and then was stoked to realize I could get to the beach super early!

I'm happy to report that I kept up with the C25k while in VB. I was going to do it today, but after waking up at 440 to finish the drive I am going to hold off 'til tomorrow. This week will bring lots of packing and working out (hopefully). And I get to see Bri on Friday, yay!

Running in the Rain

So I finished up week two of the Couch25k today. Of course, it started raining as soon as I was DONE. The entire time I was running, I was wishing for rain. It seems counterintuitive but after doing it last week I decided I am in love with it. Maybe because it has been so hot and humid and the rain is a welcome relief while gasping for air... I mean running, ha. In the past, any sort of inclement weather would have been an absolute deterrent to me going outside and exercising. Maybe this means I am hardcore! Okay maybe not, but it's a nice thought. The 100 pushups workout is getting harder so I have been putting off doing it today. I should probably go do that now, because there is no way that Sadie is going to "let" me attempt any sort of pushup while I am watching her later.

Save the Dates!

Well I took the plunge (ha) and ordered the Save the Dates today. They were fairly reasonable cost-wise and are super cute! I ordered them from magnetstreet.com after reading about the site on the knot. The site is very user friendly and allows you to customize any design. Ours are navy blue with white and dark pink writing. I always wanted a magnet style and am so happy that we went with that. Now I just need to corral addresses from everyone in the family. That part is going to be a nightmare. Having a wedding with 200+ people inevitably leads to daydreams of just taking off and eloping on a tropical island. How sweet would that be?!

I wonder if the magnet color scheme locks me into using those colors for the wedding? I was 100% set on using dark navy and white with dark fuschia accents... but then I saw this beautiful inspiration board on the knot that has me rethinking everything. The palette that I saw was champagne, gold and rose pink. I don't want a pink frou frou wedding, so if we went this route the bridesmaid dresses would be champagne, the chivari chairs would be gold, with rose pink flowers, etc. Now I am super torn.

OH and today marks exactly 9 months 'til the big day! I am so excited! The fact that after today I can say 8 months and x days to the wedding makes it seem like it is coming up super quickly. yay!

Calm Before the Storm

So it's Friday evening and I'm relaxing before the craziness that is coming on Sunday. We have a super important conference and I'm giving two presentations- one on Monday and one on Tuesday. I have to be up in Saratoga on Sunday and will be staying there until Wednesday. Tuesday night is the gala- I'm really excited for it! Hopefully I won't be too tired on Wednesday since I am booking home after lunch, packing up quickly and then driving the 8-9 hours to visit Bri over the holiday weekend. THEN I get back from that on Sunday and have to be all packed for the moving truck the following Friday. Did I mention that I haven't started packing yet? Sweet! Meanwhile the only thing I'm thinking is that the upcoming events are going to hinder the workout flow that I'm getting into. Tomorrow I will finish week 2 of the couch to 5k and week 3 of the 100 pushups challenge. I can do 50 (real!) pushups. Hard to believe as I couldn't even do one a year ago! I'm going to make an effort the keep the workout schedule going though. The Hilton has to have a treadmill, and when I visit Bri we can run on the beach together.

On another (fitness-related) note, I officially signed up for my first 5k! People's reactions have been hilarious. I asked Christina if she wanted to do it with me. Her response was a resounding "Hell NO!". I brought it up to my brother, who told me he would rather eat garbage than run a 5k. Okaaay then. THEN, I asked my co-worker this morning if she wanted to take a morning fitness bootcamp with me. She asked me if I was on drugs. So maybe I really am the crazy one?

I wish that I was enough of a runner to do the Rock 'n Roll Half Marathon in VB in early September. I read about the one in San Diego and it seemed like it was tons of fun (well, as fun as running 13 miles can be). I saw yesterday in a magazine that there is another one right near our place! I told Bri he should do it and I would cheer him along. I just don't foresee myself being ready for 13 miles in oh, two months. I haven't even run a 5k yet! So I'll conquer that first (September 27!) and go from there. Maybe the Rock 'n Roll half in San Diego next year? I could visit Jenn and Kelle at the same time and kill two birds with one stone! Annnd I just noticed that I ended three of the last four sentences with exclamation points. Moving on.

After my workout tomorrow I'm heading over to watch Sadie for C & R. She has probably gained even more weight and will be even harder to control on the leash! A 40-pound plus lab is a lot harder to walk than a 4 pound yorkie! Kristin is coming by to help entertain so it should be fun. Which means I'm off to get all of my suits ready for next week. Oh yeah fun Friday night what!